Friday, December 08, 2006

On blog content...

This blog kicked off on October 19th, 2006. I've had 6,800 visitors since I hit that first "post" button. By chance, I joined the November blog post a day competition. I wasn't really thinking about how that event would impact the traffic to my blog, but impact - IT DID.

I've had a few blogs and I created this one specifically as an outlet for my writing passion and figured I'd focus primarily on one theme and that over time I'd collect (hopefully) a small group of repeat visitors.

During the Nablopomo, I didn't have time to think about my passion for writing, at least not as far as my novel is concerned, or the general industry of writing and publishing. I instead focused on blogging, general tidbits, and random bits of personal observations. I was amazed and excited by the traffic I was receiving... Every day I could watch the numbers climb and I could see those hits of repeat visitors. When the November event ended my first thought was... what will happen to my traffic?

I became addicted to seeing all those hits. I LOVED IT! All bloggers want traffic (anyone who says they don't is fudging the truth)... but, most of us have varying degrees of how much they want. I wanted to have enough visitors to just create a little network of folks with similar interests to my own - an extended family, let's say. I wanted to have a place to make my own comments about news and drama happening in the world of literary agents, novelists, and publishers. For awhile, I lost a bit of my writing groove (I haven't worked on my novel since October!), but now I feel my brain warming up and getting back into my "writing" mode.

I tend to call bloggers "writers" and why not, you're writing after all. Something that truly links "writers" to bloggers is that content must be interesting. When was the last time you finished a novel that you thought had a boring plot and flat characters? When was the last time you said, "I loved that character! She was so dreadfully dull and boring."

A boring plot doesn't get published. A boring blog doesn't get repeat readers.

Congratulations on all your visitors, Rashenbo! I think you drew in lots of people, not just by participating in Nablopomo, but also by reviewing Nablopomo blogs by letter. That's how I found you and I really enjoyed your reviews. I've been stopping by your blog ever since.

Similarly, I experienced a 300-500% daily increase during NaBloPoMo, which has now dropped off to about 250%. I too imagine that i am building a network of like-minded friends who will drop by regularly, rather than amassing a collection of random in-bound links and google searches.

An interesting book balances rounded characters against a dynamic plot. Fully-realized characters don't need a huge life-event to be interesting, and a intricate plot absorbs so much attention that personalities can get lost in the movement. A great novel has found the perfect ratio of the two.

Blogging isn't so different: readers want a strong personality and funny/ thrilling/ thought-provoking content, with the added elements of frequency and interaction.

Congratulations on the award, you certainly deserve it. I found you on NaBloPoMo and now have you in my favorites :o) I hope there are more NaBloPoMo because I met some wonderful bloggers out there in that month. I also found I grew a lot more in that month. Being new to blogging I didn't have a clue, but now I 'try' and make my posts much more interesting to all the people who keep coming back.